Systems and methods for upgrading scalable switching networks

ABSTRACT

The creation of a variety of upgradeable scalable switching networks are set forth including multistage switching networks as well as novel multidirectional architectures. Systems and methods exploiting the properties such as fault tolerance, upgradeability with out service disruption and path redundancy are incorporated into a variety of systems. A wide range of methods for upgrading and reconfiguration the scalable switching networks are presented including manifestations of implementations of these networks and methods. Methods for designing new upgradeable scalable switching and the novel architectures derived thereof including architectures built from the redundant blocking compensated cyclic group networks are set forth.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/786,874, entitled “Systems and Methods for Upgradeable Scalable Switching”, filed on Feb. 24, 2004, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,440,448, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety as if set forth in full. The parent application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. §119 to U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 60/450,133 entitled, “Systems and Methods for Upgradeable Scalable Switching and its Applications,” filed on Feb. 25, 2003, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety as if set forth in full. This parent application is also a continuation-in-part of U.S. Pat. No. 6,901,071 issued on May 31, 2005, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety as if set forth in full. This parent application is also a continuation-in-part of U.S. Pat. No. 7,123,612 issued on Oct. 17, 2006, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety as if set forth in full. This parent application is also a continuation-in-part of U.S. Pat. No. 7,075,942, issued Jul. 11, 2006, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety as if set forth in full.

This application is also related to concurrently filed application, entitled “Design and Applications of Upgradeable Scalable Switching Networks.”

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of Invention

The field of invention relate generally to communications switching networks and more particularly to systems and methods for upgrading scalable switching networks.

2. Description of Related Art

Switching networks with regular structure have been explored for many years. Conspicuous among them are the so-called fixed radix networks, which typically comprise n stages of r^(n) switching elements with each switching element having a fanin and fanout of r, where r is the radix. The majority of past research has been focused on radix two networks that is where r=2. Goke and Lipovski in “Banyan Network for Partitioning Multiprocessor Systems,” proposed the Banyan network. Examples are illustrated in FIGS. 1A, 1B and 1C. FIG. 1A shows a 3-stage Banyan network with stages 101, 103, and 105 of switching elements. FIG. 1B shows a 4-stage Banyan network with stages 111, 113, 115 and 117. The Banyan network can be extended to other radixes such as a radix three network illustrated in FIG. 1C having three stages, stages 121, 123 and 125. This network actually finds its origin in the design of fast Fourier Transforms where it is also often termed a butterfly network. Patel in “Performance of Processor-Memory Interconnections for Multiprocessors” proposed the delta network shown in FIG. 1D with four stages, namely stages 131, 133, 135 and 137. The network shown in FIG. 1E is often called a crossover network shown here with four stages, stages 141, 143, 145 and 147. Lawrie in “Parallel Processing with a Perfect Shuffle,” uses the network shown in FIG. 1F, known as a perfect shuffle, which is often termed in the art as an Omega network, shown here with three stages, stages 151, 153, and 155. A nameless radix two network can be found in the bit order preserving fast Fourier transform architecture described in Oppenheim and Schaefer's text, Digital Signal Processing. This network is shown here with four stages (stages 161, 163, 165 and 167) in FIG. 1G and is referred to as a bit-order persevering (BOP) network for the purpose of this disclosure.

These traditional radix networks offer functional connectivity, but lack redundancy and fault tolerance. Many methods and architectures have been developed to extend fixed radix networks to add redundancy and fault tolerance. Hamid, Shiratori and Noguchi in “A new fast control mechanism for Benes rearrangeable interconnection network useful for supersystems,” extend the delta network (e.g., network 201) with a second delta network (e.g., network 203) into an architecture first suggested by Benes in “Permutation Groups, Complexes, and Rearrangeable Connecting Networks,” as shown in FIG. 2A. This can be reconfigured to show two Banyan networks (e.g., networks 211 and 213) coupled together as shown in FIG. 2B.

Further, Adams and Siegel in “The Extra Stage Cube: A Fault-Tolerant Interconnection Network for Supersystems,” teach the extra stage cube which resembles a Banyan network in FIG. 2C with an extra stage. Through the use of multiplexers 16 and demultiplexers 14, stage 10 and stage 12 can individually be enabled or bypassed giving fault tolerance to the entire network.

Kumar and Reddy in “Augmented shuffle-exchange multistage interconnection networks”, add fault tolerance and path redundancy to a Banyan network offering additional lateral paths (for example, paths 221, 223, 225 and 227) for signals to travel which is depicted in FIG. 2D, This augmented shuffle-exchange network (ASEN) increases fault tolerance and path redundancy at the expense of increased path blocking.

Another technique for augmenting fixed radix network designs is by overlaying a second network onto a preexisting design. By this method, the fault tolerance of a network can be increased. The simplest technique is dilation, which is simply the overlaying of the same network on itself. FIG. 3A shows a Banyan network like that depicted in FIG. 1B overlaid on top of a second identical Banyan network. In the traditional design, the external ports (e.g., ports 301 and 303) are not augmented in the process. However, some designs do incorporate it as shown in FIG. 3B compare with ports 311 and 313). In either case, the resultant network does increase the ability to tolerate a failure in an internal connection, but fails to compensate for any potential failure in a switching element.

This dilation technique is further refined by overlaying an upside-down version of the same network on top of itself. FIG. 4A depicts a Banyan network like that of FIG. 1B except upside-down, (shown with same reference number for the stages as FIG. 1B). Often in this technique, the connections depicted by the dotted line are often considered overly redundant and are omitted. The result is the network shown in FIG. 4B. Once again the external ports are usually not augmented, but can be. This new network does compensate for failures in switching elements.

A final extension of multistage interconnection design is the seldom used multidimensional version of the multistage interconnection network. Though not well known in switching applications, multidimensional interconnections are frequently used in signal processing. Specifically, in the design of fast Fourier transforms (FFT) multistage interconnection networks are used. Since fixed radix networks, in particular the butterfly/Banyan, are the essential building blocks of the FFT. Multidimensional extensions of the butterfly are the essential building blocks of multidimensional FFT. This is discussed in great detail in any standard multidimensional signal processing text such as Dudgeon and Mersereau's Multidimensional Signal Processing.

SUMMARY OF INVENTION

In this disclosure, a switching network and systems comprising such a network are set forth. Basic building blocks can be constructed through modification of known networks such as the Banyan, Crossover, Delta and other networks. Additionally, these modified networks can inherit beneficial network properties in their topology by utilizing additional switching stages and for utilizing the interstage interconnection (ISIC) networks described as a single stage interconnection network in Huang in U.S. Pat. No. 5,841,775. In particular, many of these networks have the desirable scalability, fault-tolerance and upgradeability properties.

The redundant blocking compensated cyclic group (RBCCG) networks and hybrids form the basic building blocks of more elaborate switching networks. One such class of networks are those formed from the Cartesian product of two switching networks. The Cartesian product of two switching networks can reduce the distance of the average connection between stages as compared to a similarly equipped “flat” switching network.

Another class of networks that can be formed from the basic building block networks is the overlaid network where two or more network topologies are overlaid to form an elaborate multidirectional network. In such an overlaid network the average latency between two external ports can be reduced.

Furthermore, routing of the RBCCG network in particular can be implemented using routing protocols and table look ups, but for some applications such as in very high performance small footprint applications, a formulaic routing method is required. Each element in an RBCCG network can route a packet based on the packet destination and the location of the switching element.

The switching networks with sufficient fault tolerance can be upgraded and/or reconfigured in a manner as to maintain full connectivity throughout the upgrade or reconfiguration process. Furthermore, the upgrading of the hybrid, Cartesian product and overlaid networks are described.

The methods of implementing a scalable switching network with upgrade capabilities are given with embodiments where software is used to assist a technician in upgrading a scalable switching network. In another embodiment, software coupled to indicator lights guide a technician in upgrading a scalable switching network. In another embodiment, a robotic instrument performs an upgrade using a patch panel. In another embodiment, switching elements are equipped with latched switches which enable a network to be laid out prior to an upgrade. In another embodiment, prefabricated interconnection can be inserted into a special interconnection box.

Although the present invention has been described below in terms of specific embodiments, it is anticipated that alteration and modifications thereof will no doubt become apparent to those skilled in the art. It is therefore intended that the following be interpreted as covering all such alterations and modifications as falling within the true spirit and scope of the invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

For a more complete understanding of the present invention, the objects and advantages thereof, reference is now made to the following descriptions taken in connection with the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1A shows a 16-port binary Banyan multistage switching network with three TOWS;

FIG. 1B shows a 32-port Banyan multistage switching network with four rows;

FIG. 1C shows a 54-port trinary Banyan multistage switching network with three TOWS;

FIG. 1D shows a 32-port delta multistage switching network with four rows;

FIG. 1E shows a 32-port crossover multistage switching network with four rows;

FIG. 1F shows a 16-port omega multistage switching network with three rows;

FIG. 1G shows a 32-port BOP multistage switching network with three four rows;

FIG. 2A shows a 16-port Benes network

FIG. 2B shows a reconfigured 16-port Benes network that comprises two Banyan networks;

FIG. 2C shows a 16-port extra stage cube network;

FIG. 2D shows a 32-port augmented shuffle-exchange network;

FIG. 3A shows a dilated Banyan network;

FIG. 3B shows a dilated Banyan network with 32 external ports added;

FIG. 4A shows an inverted 32-port Banyan network;

FIG. 4B shows a Banyan network overlaid on an inverted Banyan network;

FIG. 5A and FIG. 5B show how arbitrary ports on a switching element can be logically labeled as top and bottom ports;

FIG. 5C shows further how arbitrary ports on a switching element can be logically labeled as top, bottom, left an right ports;

FIG. 5D and FIG. 5E show how one-dimensional ports on a switching element can be logically labeled as two-dimensional ports;

FIG. 6A defines basic terminology used relating to switching networks

FIG. 6B defines the concept of functionally connected

FIG. 6C defines various parts of a multistage switching network;

FIG. 7A shows a three dimensional layout of switching elements with height of H and widths of W₁ and W₂;

FIG. 7B shows the coordinate axis labeling for the given two-dimensional multistage interconnection network;

FIG. 7C shows the definition of the fanout variable F;

FIG. 7D shows the definition of the fanout variables F₁ and F₂ for the given two-dimensional multistage interconnection network;

FIG. 8A, FIG. 8B and FIG. 8C defines various parts of an overlaid switching network;

FIG. 9 shows the relationship between the numbering of the ports for each switching element and the number of ports for an entire row;

FIG. 10 shows a 30-port RBCCG network with 4 layers and width of 5 switching elements and per switching element fanout of 3;

FIG. 11 shows a 32 port binary Butterfly multistage switching network with four stages;

FIG. 12 shows the flowchart for the reconfiguration process between a pre-reconfiguration architecture and a post-reconfiguration architecture.

FIG. 13 shows a 30-port RBCCG switching network with 6 external ports attached to switching elements that are to be removed as part of a downgrade process.

FIG. 14A, FIG. 14B, and FIG. 14C demonstrate the pre-configuration step while upgrading a 24-port RBCCG switching network to a 30-port RBBCG switching network.

FIG. 15 shows the flowchart for the pre-configuration step used in the reconfiguration process.

FIG. 16 shows flowchart for the splicing step used in the reconfiguration process.

FIG. 17A, FIG. 17B, FIG. 17C, FIG. 17D show the splicing step, where new stages of switching elements are inserted into an existing architecture.

FIG. 18 shows flowchart for the relabeling phase used in the rewiring step.

FIG. 19A and FIG. 19B show conceptually how ports might be relabeled to form the effect of exchanging two ports on the same switching element;

FIG. 19C and FIG. 19D show the logical effect of conceptually how ports might be relabeled to form the effect of exchanging two ports on the same switching element;

FIG. 20A and FIG. 20B show the flowcharts for the rewiring step used in the reconfiguration process.

FIG. 21A and FIG. 21B show the flowcharts for two embodiments of the stage selection subroutines used in the rewiring step.

FIG. 22A, FIG. 22B and FIG. 22C show the flowcharts for three embodiments of the port selection subroutines used in the rewiring step.

FIG. 23A depicts a 30-port 5-stage RBCCG switching network about the be downgraded;

FIG. 23B depicts the intermediate architecture in the downgrade process;

FIG. 23C depicts the result of the downgrade process;

FIG. 24A, FIG. 24B, FIG. 24C show a 24-port RBCCG multistage switching network with four stages upgraded to a 24-port RBCCG multistage switching network with five stages.

FIG. 25A and FIG. 25B show a 24 port RBCCG multistage switching network with four switching elements per stage upgraded to a 30-port RBCCG multistage switching network with five switching elements per stage.

FIG. 26A and FIG. 26B show a 30-port RBCCG multistage switching network with a fanout of three for each switching element upgraded to a 40-port RBCCG multistage switching network with a fanout of four for each switching element.

FIG. 27 shows how the internal insertion of a cyclic group ISIC (CGISIC) into a Banyan network can destroy functional connectivity

FIG. 28A, FIG. 28B, FIG. 28C and FIG. 28D show the process of stage upgrades for hybrid architectures;

FIG. 29A shows a 32-port Banyan network augmented with an extra CGISIC network stage at the bottom of the network;

FIG. 29B shows a 32-port crossover network augmented with an extra CGISIC network stage at the bottom of the network;

FIG. 29C shows a 32-port delta network augmented with an extra CGISIC network stage at the bottom of the network;

FIG. 29D shows a 32-port Banyan network augmented with an extra inverted CGISIC network stage at the bottom of the network;

FIG. 29E shows a 32-port Banyan network augmented with an extra CGISIC network stage at the top of the network;

FIG. 29F shows a 32-port Banyan network augmented with an extra asymmetric CGISIC network stage at the bottom of the network;

FIG. 29G shows a 32-port fast Fourier transform derived network augmented with an extra asymmetric CGISIC network stage at the bottom of the network;

FIG. 29H shows a 54-port trinary Banyan network augmented with an extra trinary CGISIC network stage at the bottom of the network;

FIG. 30A shows a 32-port delta network;

FIG. 30B shows a delta network modified to 28-ports;

FIG. 30C shows a delta network modified to 36-ports comprising an extra CGISIC network stage;

FIG. 31A shows a two-dimensional RBCCG network expanded in width by the addition of a “planar column” of switching elements;

FIG. 31B shows a two-dimensional RBCCG network expanded in width by the addition of switching elements in arbitrary positions;

FIG. 31C shows a two-dimensional RBCCG network expanded in both “widths” by the addition of two perpendicular “planar columns” of switching elements;

FIG. 31D shows a two-dimensional RBCCG network expanded in both “widths” by the addition of switching elements in arbitrary positions;

FIG. 32A and FIG. 32B show a simultaneous upgrade in fan-out, width and height;

FIG. 33A, FIG. 33B and FIG. 33C show three systematic method of scanning ports in a two dimensional switching network;

FIG. 34 shows the same complete 144-port two-dimensional Cartesian product RBCCG network but in a “flattened” form, where all the ports and switching elements are drawn in raster scan order;

FIG. 35 shows a perpendicular overlay of a 32-port Banyan network and a 16-port, 8-stage RBCCG network;

FIG. 36A, FIG. 36B, FIG. 36C, FIG. 36D, FIG. 36E, and FIG. 36F show an upgrade by increasing the width of an overlaid double RBCCG network;

FIG. 37A, FIG. 37B, FIG. 37C, FIG. 37D, FIG. 37E, and FIG. 37F show a fan-out upgrade of an overlaid double RBCCG network;

FIG. 38A, FIG. 38B, FIG. 38C, and FIG. 38D show an architectural conversion of the fan-out in one direction to fan-out in the perpendicular direction of an overlaid double RBCCG network;

FIG. 39 shows a practical implementation of scalable switching network whereby switching elements are connected to a patch panel and the connections are completed through a series of jumper cables;

FIG. 40 shows a typical patch panel augmented by indicator lights;

FIG. 41 shows a switching element with latching switches attached to the ports and alternatively shows an embodiment of a “latched router;”

FIG. 42 is a pseudocode description of a method to guide a technician through a manual upgrade process using indicators;

FIG. 43A and FIG. 43B show how latching switches are used to redirect traffic;

FIG. 44 shows a practical implementation of a scalable switching network whereby switching elements are connected through to an interconnection box;

FIG. 45 shows a schematic of an interconnection box, which is designed to have prepackaged interconnection boards to facilitate the upgrade process;

FIG. 46 shows an embodiment of an interconnection board;

FIG. 47 shows an embodiment of electronically controlled interconnections using an optical crossbar;

FIG. 48 shows an embodiment of the splicing operation using an unconventional pre-connections.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Switching elements are any type of device configured to relay traffic through different paths depending on the destination address of the traffic. Depending on the context, the switching elements as well as the systems and methods recited within this disclosure, operate with both circuit switched networks, packet switched networks, and networks comprising circuit switched elements and packet switched elements. The switching elements include but aren't limited to routers and switches, such as an Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) switch or Ethernet switch. A switching element comprises ports which are an interface by which traffic is allowed to flow.

Some switching elements can further have the capability of expanding in the number of ports. In some embodiments, the switching elements can have the number of ports expanded without requiring the switching element to be powered off and in fact, the switching elements can even relay traffic during the expansion process, known as a hot upgrade.

For example, a router often comprises a central networking processor and a plurality of line cards. The router is designed to allow line cards to be added and removed while the router is in operation. Line cards comprise at least one port. Therefore, the number of ports on this type of router can be changed while the router is in operation.

In discussing switching elements a distinction is drawn between a physical layout and a logical layout. In FIG. 5A, a switching element is depicted as having six ports 42, 44, 46, 48, 50 and 52. These ports can physically be accessed anywhere on the switching element; for example, it is common for switches to have all their ports located in the rear. Regardless of the physical layout, ports on a switching element can be logically located. For example, ports can be logically defined as a top port or a bottom port. In another logical embodiment, the same switching element can have ports logically defined as a top port, bottom port, left port or right port. For example, switching element 40 can logically be defined to look like switching element 60 in FIG. 5B, by logically mapping ports 42, 44, and 46 to top ports 62, 64, and 66, respectively and ports 48, 50 and 52 to bottom ports 68, 70 and 72. In another logical embodiment, switching element 40 can logically be defined to look like switching element 80 in FIG. 5C, by logically mapping port 42 to top port 82, port 44 to top port 84, port 46 to left port 86, port 48 to bottom port 88, port 50 to bottom port 90, and port 52 to bottom port 92.

The mapping of physical to logical ports can be used to give multidimensional characteristics to a switching element. FIG. 5D shows a switching element 100 having ports 102, 104, 106, 108, 110, and 112, representing top ports 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5. By mapping top ports 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 to top ports (0,0), (0,1), (0,2), (1,0), (1,1) and (1,2) as indicated in FIG. 5E by ports 122, 124, 126, 128, 130 and 132, respectively, the resultant logical switching element 120 exhibits two-dimensional characteristics. By extension, two dimensional local mapping can apply to defining bottom ports, left ports, right ports, front ports, and back ports. Clearly, logical mapping can result in higher dimensional characteristics of a switching element.

In describing a switching network, several terms are used in this disclosure. In addressing any switching network, an external port to a switching network is a port of a switching element which is intended to be connected to a device not part of the switching network. Likewise, an internal port to a switching network is a port of a switching element which is intended to be connected to another switching element within. Similarly, an external connection is a connection between a switching element of the switching network and a potential external device and an internal connection is a connection between two or more switching elements within the switching network. For example, in FIG. 6A, switching network 200 comprises a plurality of switching elements 202, where some of the switching elements 202 have external ports 206 and 204 and internal ports 208. Conversely, some of the switching elements 202 only have internal ports. In this example, there are a plurality of internal connections 210 and an external connection 212. An external port 204 need not be connected to an external device 214 as long as the port is intended to be connected to an external device. Furthermore, if the switching network is reconfigured, expanded or modified, an external port can be made converted to an internal port by simply connecting it to another switching element within the switching network. Likewise, an internal port can be made available to an external device thereby redefining the role to an external port. The distinction between internal and external is not intended to be a constraining property of the port, but merely as a logical allocation.

A switching network is termed functionally connected if for every pair of external ports, there is a path connecting them. For example, in FIG. 6B, switching network 220 is functionally connected. Every pair of external ports can be connected through switching network 220. For example, external ports 222 and 224 can be connected through path 226.

In FIG. 6C, the specific case of a multistage switching network 240, the network typically comprises a layer of external ports 242, two or more stages of switching elements 244, and an inter-stage interconnection (ISIC) network 246 connecting two adjacent stages comprising all connections between the two adjacent stages. In such referring to such a network, the number of stages is referred to as the height, H. In a one-dimensional stage, the width is referred to as the width, W.

In higher dimensional stages, a width is ascribed to each coordinate axis. For example, FIG. 7A shows a multistage switching network with two-dimensional stages. It has H stages and is referred to as having a height of H. For ease of notation, the direction perpendicular to the stages (i.e. the direction traversed in order to count the number of stages) is referred to as the y axis, and each direction the stages occupy are referred to as the x_(i) direction. In the example of FIG. 7A, each stage has widths of W₁ in the x₁ direction and W₂ in the x₂ direction as further depicted in FIG. 7B.

The port width of a switching element is referred to in this disclosure as the fanout. This definition coincides historically with the definition of fanout in multistage interconnection networks. However, in practice, switching elements can include bidirectional ports; that is, traffic is allowed to flow in and out of each port, so this definition of fanout can differ from some meanings in the art. FIG. 7C depicts a switching element with a fanout of F; it has F top ports and F bottom ports. Similarly, if a stage of a multistage switching network is multidimensional, it can have various fanouts. For example, FIG. 7D shows a two-dimensional switching element with fanouts of F₁ in the x₁ direction and F₂ in the x₂ direction.

FIG. 8A, FIG. 8B and FIG. 8C depict an overlaid switching network 300 which is described in detail below, with external ports 320. It can be described in terms of rows and columns. Between rows can be an inter-row interconnection (IRIC) network 330 as indicated in FIG. 8B. Between the columns can be an inter-column interconnection (ICIC) network 330 as indicated in FIG. 8C.

As a convention in the diagrams, items are generally counted starting with 0 from top to bottom, left to right and, in the case of three dimensional drawings, front to back. For example, the stages of a multistage switching networks are numbered from top to bottom from 0 to H−1 with stage 0 at the top and the ports on the switching elements are numbered from left to right from 0 to F−1 with port 0 leftmost. Furthermore, the switching elements are numbered from left to right from 0 to W−1.

On occasion, it is convenient to refer to a port as belonging to a stage or ISIC network, that is a port belongs to a stage if it belongs to a switching element belonging to the stage. A port belongs to an ISIC network if it is a top port and the top ports of the stage to which it belongs is coupled to the ISIC network. Conversely, if the port is a bottom port, it belongs to an ISIC network if the bottom ports of the stage to which it belongs is coupled to the ISIC network. One should not by this convention a port need not be connected to belong to an ISIC network.

It is often convenient to number these ports from 0 to W×F−1. Notationally, each switching element can be labeled as R(n,W) indicating it is w+1 switching elements from the leftmost switching element in stage n+1. FIG. 9 depicts stage n+1 of switching elements, indicated as stage 400. In this example, F=3 and W=5 so the bottom and top ports for each switching element are numbered from 0 to 2, as indicated by 402 for the top ports and 404 for the bottom ports. If referring to the top ports and bottom ports of the stage, they are numbered from 0 to 14 as indicated by 406 and 408 respectively. Mathematically, the relationship is a simple equation, for instance, top port 2 of switching element R(n,4) would be top port 4F+2 of stage n. In discussion of higher dimensional switching networks, this concept can be extended to numbering of all ports of a two-dimensional stage. For instance, bottom port (1,3) of switching element R(n,2,3) would be bottom port (2F₁+1,3F₂+3) of the ISIC network.

By way of specific example, many of the switching networks described are redundant blocking compensated cyclic group (RBCCG) networks as described by Huang in U.S. Pat. No. 5,841,775; therefore, U.S. Pat. No. 5,841,775, entitled “Scalable Switching Networks,” issued on Nov. 24, 1998 is incorporated herein by reference in its entirely as if set forth in full. Specifically, balanced RBCCG networks which have a stride value equal to the fanout such as the one depicted in FIG. 10 are used. The balanced RBCCG network depicted in FIG. 10 has a fanout of 3, a stride of 3, height of 4 (stages 371, 373, 375 and 377) and a width of 5. Each ISIC network in a balanced RBCCG is referred to as a cyclic group ISIC (CGISIC) network.

When a multistage switching network such as a Banyan or crossover network is expanded, a new stage must be added as well as a doubling of its width. Adding a new stage requires that half of the external connections be disconnected in the process. This leads to an interruption in service.

A crossover network 6010 is shown in FIG. 11 with top ports 6012 connected to external connections 6014 and bottom ports 6016 connected to external connections 6018. A duplicate of this network 6020 with top ports 6022 and bottom ports 6024. A new stage 6026 with top ports 6028 and bottom ports 6030 are also shown.

In order to double number of external connections of the crossover network 6010, the connections between the top ports 6012 and external connections 6014 have to be broken and connected to the left half of new stage bottom ports 6030, and the external connections 6014 have to be connected to the left half of new stage top ports 6028. To complete the upgrade, the duplicate network top ports 6022 are connected to the right half of new stage bottom ports 6030. At this point, duplicate network bottom ports 6024 and right half of new stage top ports 6028 would be available for new external connections.

The problem is that the connections between the original network top ports 6012 and external connections 6014 have to be disconnected in the process. This leads to an interruption in service.

As indicated above, in order for a crossover network or other radix two network to be upgradeable by adding an extra stage, it must simultaneously be expanded by width. Though many multistage switching networks are defined as radix two, many of those networks, such as the Banyan and delta networks, have a generalized radix architecture leading to arbitrary fanouts. This leads to the question as to whether or how one would upgrade from one radix to another. For example, can a 16-port binary Banyan network such as the one depicted in FIG. 1A be upgraded to the 54-port trinary Banyan network depicted in FIG. 1C by increasing the fanout of the switching elements from two to three, since both networks have the same number of stages?

There is no known investigation of the process of upgrading the fanout of Banyan networks. There are two likely reasons why such an upgrade path is undesirable. First, most implementations of switching networks using the Banyan architecture employ specific binary sorting algorithms to route traffic. Second, an upgrade of an n-stage 2 ^(n+)1-port binary network to an n-stage 2×3^(n)-port trinary network or n-stage 2×4^(n)-port quaternary network would entail an exponential growth in the number of ports required. For example, the 3-stage networks discussed above would involve an upgrade from a 16-port binary network to a 54-port trinary network to possibly the 128-port quaternary network. For a 4-stage network, this upgrade path would progress from a 32-port binary network to a 162-port trinary network to a 512-port quaternary network. For a 5-stage network, this upgrade path would progress from a 64-port binary network to a 486-port trinary network to an astronomical 2048-port quaternary network. Given that these are among the smallest upgrade scenarios, it is likely there would be little need for such upgrades. However, with the methods disclosed below and in U.S. Pat. No. 7,075,942, such an upgrade can be performed if desired.

There are many processes involving redundant multistage networks which require the rewiring of ISIC networks, including but not limited to upgrades (width, stage, fanout, and combination of these), downgrade (i.e. the reverse process of upgrades), and reconfiguration between architectures. With suitable redundancy, these processes can be performed without interruption of service and with minimal degradation of service during the upgrade/reconfiguration process. Rather than cite all occurrences of upgrade with the compound expression upgrade/reconfiguration the term upgrade and reconfiguration are used interchangeably. It should be understood that either term should be construed to include any combination of upgrading, downgrading and reconfiguring of a scalable switching network.

It should be noted that the use of a dynamic routing protocol such as those mentioned above, along with a network management protocol which can detect failures, can enable the reconfiguration procedures to be performed on switching networks with sufficient redundancy without loss of functional connectivity. In a practical setting, an upgrade or reconfiguration can be performed in a contemplative and deliberate manner, rather than rushing to perform and upgrade during a limited scheduled maintenance window.

As a prerequisite to the reconfiguration process, it is often useful to have a post-reconfiguration switching network design, also referred to as a post-reconfiguration architecture, already derived so that during the reconfiguration process, the implementer of the process is aware of where each port is connected to in the pre-reconfiguration switching network and the post-reconfiguration switching network. In the event that the reconfiguration involves the removal of a stage, an intermediate reconfiguration switching network design, also referred to as an intermediate reconfiguration architecture, should also be derived. The intermediate reconfiguration architecture is best described by working backwards from the post-reconfiguration architecture and “splicing in” the stage that is being removed with the splicing process is set forth below. In the description of the reconfiguration process, whenever the post-reconfiguration switching network is mentioned, it should be construed to also include the intermediate reconfiguration network unless explicitly excluded.

Furthermore, when discussing connectivity in the post-reconfiguration switching network (or the intermediate reconfiguration network depending on context), it is useful to refer to a given port's corresponding port as the port to which the given port is connected to in the post-reconfiguration switching network. That is, a bottom port's corresponding port is the top port which connects to that bottom port in the post-reconfiguration switching network. Similarly, a top port's corresponding port is the bottom port which connects to that top port in the post-reconfiguration switching network.

Though the following embodiment depicts the process in a certain order, many of the steps can be interchanged in order. FIG. 12 depicts the overall reconfiguration process. The process begins by determining at step 6102 whether there are any of the external ports that are to be removed during the reconfiguration process; if so, they are deactivated and disconnected at step 6104. These “downgraded” external ports, for example, can be coupled to switching elements which are being removed, or they can be removed as part of a fanout downgrade.

For example, FIG. 13 shows a balanced RBCCG switching network being downgraded from a width of 5 switching elements per stage to 4 switching elements per stage. Column 6130 is the column of switching elements to be removed. External connections 6132 and 6134 therefore must be disconnected from their external connections as dictated by this step.

After all the downgraded external ports have been deactivated and disconnected, add new hardware is added at step 6106. It is not necessary to all new hardware at this point in the process and certainly hardware can be added as it is used. From the logical point of view, all hardware should be recognized as for where it is to be added in the post-reconfiguration switching network, that is, if the width is being upgraded, each switching element should be designated a position within each stage, or if the fanout is being downgraded which port is being ultimately removed should be designated. In one embodiment of the process, as soon as hardware is added to the switching network, it is activated so that traffic can be relayed by the new hardware even during the reconfiguration process.

For example, FIG. 14A represents a 4 stage balanced RBCCG switching network that is to be upgraded from a width of 4 switching elements per stage to a width of 5. In accordance with this step, the hatched switching elements are inserted as shown in FIG. 14B. The post-reconfiguration switching network is shown in FIG. 14C.

Returning to FIG. 12, at step 6108 and step 6110, the optional step of pre-connecting unused ports is performed. At step 6108, a determination is made as to whether any of the unused ports can be connected to another unused port, that is, whether a port is unused as well as its corresponding port. Though optional, the pre-connection of these ports improves the path redundancy of the switching network, leading to better switching service during the reconfiguration process. The pre-connection step is described in greater detail below. Furthermore to bolster fault tolerance, one embodiment of this step connects an unused port to any other unused port.

At step 6112 and step 6114, any new stages that are added are spliced in. The splicing step is described in greater detail below.

At step 6116, all the ISIC networks are reconfigured, that is, they are rewired in accordance with the post-reconfiguration switching network or the intermediate reconfiguration switching network if the reconfiguration process involves a stage removal. During the rewiring step connections are described a broken, but in actuality it can be necessary to divert traffic away from the ports coupled to the connection. Often, the ports coupled to the connection can be shutdown or stopped. While decoupled from one port the connection can be moved to another port leaving the other end of the connection coupled to another port though the stage of the connection is that of being disconnected. Regardless the physical requirements, the rewiring process at the high level is described in terms of breaking connections and establishing connections. Additional steps are given at a lower level description of the process.

At step 6118 and step 6120, any stages that need to be removed are “spliced out.” This operates in the reverse fashion as the splicing step described above.

At step 6122, all unused hardware can be removed. Regardless of physical removal, the unused hardware can no longer operate with the switching network.

At step 6124 and step 6126, any new external ports created through the reconfiguration process can be coupled to external connections and traffic is permitted to flow through them.

It should be noted that equivalences exist in the detail embodiments of reconfiguration process set forth below. For example, the mirror image of a network could be used or an upside down version, or other spatial transformation, rendering the choice of top or bottom, left or right somewhat arbitrary. For clarity in the embodiments below, a direction is selected so that the embodiments of the process can be demonstrated in detail.

FIG. 15 illustrates in detail the pre-connection step. At step 6152, a determination is made as to whether all bottom ports have been examined. At step 6154, a bottom port bport is selected according to an ordering. If bport is not connected to anything as determined at step 6156 and if bport's corresponding port is not connected to anything as determined at step 6158, bport is connected to its corresponding port in step 6160. Basically, this process selects a bottom port (or equivalently a top port), and it determines whether a connection can be made without breaking an existing connection. If so, that connection is made, then the process repeats until every bottom port has been examined. A common method of ordering the bottom ports is a raster scan order, where the bottom ports of the stages from top to bottom are examined, and from left to right within each stage. Though raster scan order is given as an example, the order of examination is arbitrary.

For example, in the upgrade described above where a switching network shown in FIG. 14A is upgraded to the post-reconfiguration switching network shown in FIG. 14C. It can be determined that bottom port 6140 and its corresponding port 6142 are both unused; therefore, they can be connected without any negative impact on the switching network. It can also be determined that top port 6146 and its corresponding port 6144 are both unused; therefore, they can also be connected without any negative impact on the switching network. It should also be noted that no such determinations can be made between stage 0 and stage 1.

FIG. 16 illustrates in detail the splicing step. At step 6162, the location of the splice is selected and the stage above the splice location is labeled upper_stage. In FIG. 17A, two stages of a multistage switching network 6200 with a collection of pre-connected switching elements 6202 are prepared for splicing into switching network 6200, whereby stage 6208 is the stage to be spliced. The splicing location is indicated at 6206, and stage 6204 is designated as upper_stage.

At step 6164, the top stage and bottom stage of the new switching elements are identified as top_inserted_stage and bottom_inserted_stage. In the example in FIG. 17A, only one extra stage is added, so top_inserted_stage and bottom_inserted_stage are identified with stage 6208. In a second example in FIG. 17C, a two stage switching network 6222 is spliced into switching network 6220 at the position indicated by 6224. Stage 6226 is designated as the upper_stage. In this example, stage 6228 is designated as the top_inserted_stage and stage 6230 is designated as the bottom_inserted_stage.

At step 6166, the bottom ports of upper_stage are each spliced in, and the splicing process is repeated until all bottom ports of the upper_stage are spliced. The order of operation is arbitrary, but can include splicing the bottom ports from left to right.

At step 6168, the bottom port being spliced is labeled bport and is disconnected, and at step 6170, the top port that bport is connected to is labeled tport. For the splicing process, it is useful to define the splice index of a port as its position in the stage. For example, port 2 of switching element 1 where the switching elements have a fanout of 3 has a splice index of 4.

At step 6172, a determination is made as to whether the top port in top_inserted_stage with the same splice index as bport is connected (possibly from the pre-connection step). If it is not, that top port is connected to bport in step 6176.

A determination is made as to whether the bottom port in bottom_inserted_stage with the same splice index as bport is connected (possibly from the pre-connection step) at step 6178. If it is not, that bottom port is connected to tport in step 6180.

These steps are repeated until all bottom ports of upper_stage are spliced in. FIG. 17B shows the result of the completed splicing step. It should be noted that bottom ports 6212 and 6214 are not connected because port 6212 would have been connected to top port 0 of switching element 0 of stage 6208, which was connected previously in the pre-connection step. Likewise, port 6214 would have been connected, to top port 2 of switching element 2 of stage 6208 which was connected previously in the pre-connection step. In addition, top ports 6216 and 6218 are not connected, because top port 6216 would have been connected to bottom port 1 of switching element 1 of stage 6208, and top port 6218 would have been connected to bottom port 1 of switching element 3 of stage 6208, but both bottom ports were connected previously in the pre-connection step.

FIG. 17D shows the result of the complete splicing step into switching network 6220. In contrast, the result of this splicing is that all bottom ports in upper_stage are connected.

The rewiring step which reconfigures all the ISIC networks to the post-reconfiguration architecture can be the most elaborate step in the reconfiguration process. There are many specific embodiments, some of which are disclosed here. FIG. 20A is a flow chart that diagrams the basic algorithm. At step 6352, a determination is made as to whether there are any ports not connected to their corresponding port; if none are found the rewiring step is complete. If there are such ports, one is selected at step 6354, and optionally, ports belonging to the ISIC network to which the selected port belong can be relabeled. In this context, a port belonging to the ISIC network to which a given port belongs means that if a given port is a bottom port, then all ports that are bottom ports of the same stage as the given port belong to the ISIC network; furthermore, all top ports of the stage below the stage to which the given port belongs also belong to the ISIC network. Similarly, if a given port is a top port, then all ports that are top ports of the same stage as the given port belong to the ISIC network; furthermore, all bottom ports of the stage above the stage to which the given port belongs also belong to the ISIC network. The relabeling step is described in detail below. In principle, the incremental substeps of the relabeling step can be interspersed with the incremental substeps of the remaining rewiring process. If no relabeling is performed, a determination is made at step 6360 as to whether the selected port is already connected; if so, it is disconnected in step 6362. Subsequently at step 6364, a determination is made as to whether the selected port's corresponding port is connected; if so, the corresponding port is disconnected at step 6366. Finally, the selected port is connected to its corresponding port, in effect rewiring the selected port. The process then repeats, until all ports are connected to their corresponding port. FIG. 20A details this rewiring process.

The selection of the port at each iteration can be accomplished by a variety of methods. For example, before the rewiring step, a list of all ports that are not connected to their corresponding port can be made, and the port selection follows that list by checking ports off as they are connected to their corresponding port.

FIG. 20B breaks the process into a stage by stage rewiring. There is an index variable used to count the stages called rindex, which is initialized to zero at step 6402. At step 6404, a stage is selected by the function stage_select to be the current stage being rewired. Optionally, the ISIC network below the current stage is relabeled as set forth below. Next, at step 6408, the current port is selected by the function port_select. Typically the port_select function selects a bottom port of the current stage or a top port of the stage below the current stage. At step 6410, a determination is made as to whether there are any more bottom ports in the current stage or top ports in the stage below to select. If not, the rewiring step jumps ahead to step 6422. Otherwise, a determination is made at step 6412 as to whether the selected port is connected. If so, it is disconnected in step 6414. At step 6416, a determination is made as to whether the selected port's corresponding port is connected. If so, the corresponding port is disconnected at step 6418. At step 6420, the selected port is connected to its corresponding port. The process then repeats by returning to step 6404 until there are no more ports to be selected according to 6410. In this case, at step 6422, the rindex variable is incremented and the process repeats for another stage until all the stages have been selected as determined in step 6424. Since each iteration on rindex represents the rewiring between the current stage and the stage below the current stage, the bottom most stage is never selected and the rindex variable never exceeds num_stages−1.

The relabeling substep within the rewiring step logically rewires a switching element rather than physically rewiring a switching element when conditions permit. For example, if bottom port 0 of a switching element is supposed to be connected to another switching element in the stage below, but bottom port 1 actually is connected to that switching element, it would be convenient to swap the two ports. Since the port numbering is performed logically, renumbering can be performed logically.

For example, FIG. 19A shows a switching element 6302 having switching logic 6304, and connected to switching elements 6306, 6308 and 6310. The logical port numbers are indicated at 6312. In FIG. 19B, the switching logic is reconfigured. For example, switching logic 6314 now reverses bottom port 0 and bottom port 1. Switching logic 6316 permutes all three bottom ports to the numbering indicated. By reconfiguring switching element 6302 to switching logic 6314, the logical connectivity of the four switching elements depicted in FIG. 19A becomes that depicted in FIG. 19C. Similarly, reconfiguring switching element 6302 to switching logic 6316 yields a logical connectivity as depicted in FIG. 19D.

This example illustrates the method of implementing a logical relabeling. FIG. 18 is a flowchart describing how it can be employed in relabeling the ports attached to an ISIC network. The relabeling step described in FIG. 18 applies only to a single ISIC network which is given by the stage attached directly above the ISIC network. At step 6252, bport is set to the leftmost bottom port of the stage. At step 6254, the source switching element is defined to be the switching element to which bport is attached. At step 6256, the destination switching element is defined to be the switching element to which bport is connected to, if connected at all. If bport is supposed to be connected to the destination switching element, i.e., its corresponding port belongs to the destination switching element as determined in step 6258, then no relabeling is performed, thereby ending this iteration. Otherwise, if any port on the sources switching network is supposed to be connected to the destination switching element as determined in step 6260, then that port is logically swapped with bport. At step 6264, the iteration ends and repeats by setting bport to the bottom port right of the old bport value at step 6266 unless bport is determined at step 6264 to be the rightmost bottom port of the stage. This concludes the first phase of the relabeling step. The second phase begins at step 6268, where tport is set to the rightmost top port of the stage below the one given to the relabeling method (call it the subsequent stage as a shorthand). At step 6170, the source switching element is set to be the switching element tport belongs to. At step 6172, the destination port is set to be the port tport is connected to. It should be noted here that the first phase insures that the bottom ports are connected to the correct switching element in the subsequent stage. Now, the objective is to insure the correct top port on the subsequent stage is connected to the correct port, i.e., its corresponding port. At 6274, a determination is made as to whether tport is supposed to be connected to its destination port, i.e., the destination port is tport's corresponding port. If so, that ends this iteration at step 6280. Otherwise, a determination is made as to whether any port on the source switching element has a corresponding port matching the destination port at step 6276. If so, that port is logically swapped with tport at step 6278. The iteration ends at 6280, and repeats by setting tport to the top port left of the old tport value at step 6282 unless tport is determined at step 6280 to be the leftmost bottom port of the subsequent stage, in which case the relabeling phase for the stage is complete.

It should be noted that though scanning bottom ports from left to right and top ports from right to left is used in FIG. 18, the ordering is arbitrary. Linear scanning such as left to right and vice versa are simpler to implement in software.

As described above, the embodiment of the rewiring step depicted in FIG. 20B requires two subroutines stage_select and port_select. The purpose of the stage_select subroutine is to offer an order of rewiring the ISIC networks. By convention, the term rewiring a stage actually refers to rewiring the ISIC network coupled directly below the stage, rather than specifying an ISIC network by referring to it as the ISIC network located between stage n and stage n+1. The purpose of the port_select subroutine is to select a port “within the ISIC network,” that is more precisely to select from either the bottom ports of the selected stage or from the top ports of the stage immediately below the selected stage. FIG. 21A and FIG. 21B describe two embodiments of the stage_select subroutine. In FIG. 21A, the stages are selected according to their index, so the ISIC networks are rewired from top to bottom. In FIG. 21B, the stages are selected with the middlemost stage first, then alternating above and below the middlemost stage, progressively selecting a stage farther and farther away from the middlemost stage, until all stages are described. The latter generally exhibits better redundancy throughout the rewiring process. Many other embodiments of stage_selection can be employed as well.

There are an arbitrary number of port_select subroutines. Set forth here are three exemplars. FIG. 22A depicts one exemplary embodiment of the port_select subroutines. First, at step 6502, a determination is made as to whether there are any ports that are not connected. If none exist, the subroutine jumps to step 6530. At step 6504, a scanning order of all disconnected ports is established, for example, lexicographical ordering with top port before bottom port and left port before right port. The iteration is initialized in step 6506 by setting the test port to the first port in this ordering that is not connected. At step 6508, a determination is made as to whether the test port's corresponding port is connected; if not, the test port is selected in step 6510, ending the subroutine. Otherwise, the testing repeats for the next test port. If there are ports to be scanned as determined by 6512, the next port is selected in the scanning order that is not connected to its corresponding port in step 6514. If the there are no more ports to be scanned, the scan order is reset at 6516 by setting the test port to the first port in the scanning order that is not connected. At step 6518, a determination is made as to whether switching element to which the test port's corresponding port belongs already has a like port disconnected; that is, if test port is a bottom port, is there another bottom port disconnected, and likewise if test port is a top port. If not, then the test port is selected in step 6520 and the subroutine ends. Otherwise, the testing repeats for the next test port. If there are ports to be scanned as determined by 6522, the next port is selected in the scanning order that is not connected to its corresponding port in step 6524. If the there are no more ports to be scanned, then the first disconnected port in the scanning order is selected, and the subroutine ends. At step 6530, a determination is made as to whether there is a port not connected to its corresponding port. If so, the first one in the scanning order is selected at step 6532, and the subroutine ends. If not, there are no ports in need of rewiring, and the subroutine indicates that in step 6534.

FIG. 22B depicts a simpler embodiment of the port_select subroutine. At step 6552, a determination is made as to whether there was a bottom port disconnected in the previous call to the subroutine (if there was one). If there was, at step 6554, the disconnected port is selected and possibly a new bottom port is disconnected as a result of rewiring the selected port. That disconnected port can be saved for the next call to the subroutine. If no bottom port was previously disconnected, or if this is the first call to the subroutine, a scanning order of bottom ports is established at step 6556. At step 6558, the test port is set to the first port in the scanning order. If the test port is not connected to its corresponding port, the test port is selected, and any bottom port that is disconnected as a result of the rewiring of the selected port is saved for the next call; otherwise, the iteration continues if at step 6560 it is determined that there is another port in the scanning order. If not, the subroutine ends at 6562, with the notification that there are no ports requiring rewiring. Otherwise, the iteration repeats by setting the test port to the next port in the scanning order.

FIG. 22C depicts an elaborate embodiment of the port_select subroutine. In this embodiment, a first-in first-out (FIFO) queue is used. At step 6602, the FIFO is retrieved from possible previous calls to the subroutine. At step 6604, the FIFO is checked if it is empty. If it is empty, it is reloaded at step 6606 with all the ports that are disconnected. At step 6608, the FIFO is checked again. If it is still empty, a determination is made at step 6612 to determine if there is a port not connected to its corresponding port. If not, no ports require rewiring, and the subroutine issues a notification at step 6614. If there is a port not connected to its corresponding port, that port is selected at step 6616 and the subroutine ends. If the FIFO is not found to be empty at either 6604 or 6608, the port at the top of the FIFO is selected at step 6610. The top entry of the FIFO is removed at step 6618, and the subroutine ends.

As described above, the unsplicing or “splicing out” step is essentially the reverse of the splicing. This step is only used if there are unwanted stages that need to be downgraded out of the switching network. When this is the case, all the preceding steps employ the intermediate reconfiguration architecture as a guide for determining topological quantities, such as the corresponding ports, rather than the post-reconfiguration architecture.

FIG. 23A depicts a 30-port 5 stage balanced RBCCG switching network slated to be downgraded to a 24-port 4 stage balanced RBCCG switching network by removing the switching elements marked with hatching. The switching elements remaining in the post-reconfiguration architecture are denoted by R(s,i) where s is the stage in the post-configuration architecture and i is the index of the switching element within each stage. Careful calculations show that FIG. 23B represents the intermediate reconfiguration switching network. This was determined essentially by taking the true post-reconfiguration architecture (not the intermediate one) and splicing in the switching elements that are being removed. Basically, this is derived from reversing the upgrade process.

The unsplicing operation is described as follows, if a proper intermediate reconfiguration switching network is derived. The top ports of the upper most stage being unspliced are iterated through perhaps using a left to right ordering. The matching bottom ports of the lower most stage being unspliced are also identified. If both top port i of the upper most stage and bottom port i of the lower most stage are both connected, both connections are broken and the bottom port to which top port i of the upper most stage is connected and the top port to which bottom port i of the lower most stage is connected should be connected together. If either top port i of the upper most stage or bottom port i of the lower most stage are not connected, the unsplicing for that i can be skipped. In this embodiment, the value of i runs through all values from 0 to W×F−1. The result of the unsplicing is shown in FIG. 23C.

The following three examples apply the reconfiguration process set forth above to the three basic modes of upgrading a multistage switching network: a stage or row upgrade, a width upgrade, and a fanout upgrade.

The first example is that of a stage upgrade, whereby an extra stage is added to a multistage switching network. FIG. 24A shows a pre-reconfiguration switching network, which is a 24-port 4 stage balanced RBCCG switching network with ISIC networks, 6552, 6554, and 6556. They are identical, but 6554 is drawn in an elongated manner for clarity when indicating where the new stage of switching elements is to be inserted. There are no external ports that need to be deactivated. There are no pre-connections that can be performed. The result of the network after the splicing step is shown in FIG. 24B, where ISIC network 6654 is systematically broken and reformed into new ISIC networks 6672 and 6676 in order to insert new stage 6674. After the rewiring step, the switching network matches its post-reconfiguration architecture as shown in FIG. 24C, where ISIC network 6672 is rewired to ISIC network 6680. The result is a 24-port 5 stage balanced RBCCG switching network. A stage upgrade process was also set forth in prior application, U.S. Pat. No. 6,901,071. The location of each switching element is denoted by R(s,i) where the letter “N” is used to for s denote the new stage.

The next example is that of a width upgrade. FIG. 25A shows a pre-reconfiguration switching network of a 24-port 4 stage balanced RBCCG network with ISIC networks, 6702, 6704, and 6706. Through the process set forth above, the switching network is transformed into the wider post-reconfiguration 30-port 4 stage balanced RBCCG switching network depicted in FIG. 25B, where new switching elements 6718 are added and ISIC networks 6702, 6704, and 6706 are reconfigured into ISIC networks 6712, 6714, and 6716, respectively. A width upgrade process is also set forth in U.S. Pat. No. 7,123,612. Each switching element is labeled R(s,i) to indicate its location within the switching network.

The next example is that of a fanout upgrade. FIG. 26A shows a pre-reconfiguration switching network of a 30-port 5 stage balanced RBCCG network with a per switching element fanout of 3. It comprises ISIC networks 6722, 6724, and 6726. Through the process set forth above, the switching network is transformed into the post-reconfiguration 40-port 4 stage balanced RBCCG switching network with a per switching element fanout of 4 depicted in FIG. 26B where ISIC networks 6722, 6724 and 6726 are reconfigured into ISIC networks 6732, 6734, and 6736, respectively. A fanout upgrade process is also set forth in U.S. Pat. No. 7,075,942. Each switching element is labeled R(s,i) to indicate its location within the switching network.

Thus far the examples given reconfigure RBCCG switching networks. The reconfiguration process can apply in the same manner for other multistage interconnection networks, provided that sufficient fault tolerance exists and a routing algorithm is implemented that accounts for the change of the architecture during the upgrade process.

As with any reconfiguration process, the post-reconfiguration architecture must be a viable switching network architecture. For example, it is known that the insertion of an extra stage with an extra ISIC network into a functionally connected Banyan network such as the one depicted in FIG. 1B can destroy the functionally connected property of the network, despite the fact that an extra stage usually gives path redundancy. FIG. 27 depicts a Banyan network with an extra stage 7304 and an extra ISIC network 7302 which is a CGISIC network. Though the Banyan network from which this network is derived from is functionally connected, the hybrid network is not, as proof, one should note there is no path from port S to port D. All paths originating from port S to the external ports on the last stage are shown in bold, clearly, port D is not one that can be reached.

As a general rule, for a switching network that is a hybrid switching network, having additional stages coupled with CGISIC networks such as those depicted in FIGS. 29A-29H, where the extra stage is added to either the top or bottom of the network are upgradeable. In such a hybrid switching network, such as the one depicted in FIG. 28A, an extra stage can be inserted anywhere adjacent to the CGISIC network 7402 used for augmentation as indicated by arrow 7406. In the splicing process, the connections can be broken by disconnecting the top ports or bottom ports of switching elements in stage 7404, depending on the embodiment of the splicing algorithm used.

FIG. 28B shows the result after the splicing operation in accordance with the description above. FIG. 28C shows the resultant switching network after the upgrade process is complete; in particular, after the rewiring operation is completed. The rewiring operation can be performed based on the descriptions set forth above.

Arrows 7412 and 7414 in FIG. 28C indicate insertion locations for the addition of still another stage. The result would be the switching network depicted in FIG. 28D where arrows 7422, 7424, and 7426 indicate insertion locations for the further addition of another stage.

As for changes in fanout or width, the reconfiguration process set forth above can be applied, provided there is sufficient fault tolerance. For example, the delta network of FIG. 30A can be reconfigured to either the switching network of FIG. 30B or FIG. 30C. However, the switching network FIG. 30C is not functionally connected, and FIG. 30A does not have sufficient fault tolerance to guarantee no interruption of service during the reconfiguration process; that is, during the reconfiguration process, the switching network can fail to be functionally connected. Nonetheless, the reconfiguration process set forth above tends to minimize the impact of the lack of functional connectivity. Furthermore, if the switching networks depicted in FIG. 30A, FIG. 30B and FIG. 30C were augmented by an extra stage and a CGISIC network, the reconfiguration process set forth above can be used to make the transformation between any two of those switching networks without interruption of service.

Naturally, another use of the reconfiguration process would be to transform a hybrid switching network, which lacks symmetry and is more cumbersome to design and describe, into a RBCCG switching network, which is easier to describe and possesses greater symmetry, which can lead to a much more manageable upgrade path.

The reconfiguration process set forth above can also be applied to the Cartesian product of any of the scalable switching networks described above, provided there is sufficient fault tolerance in the pre-reconfiguration and post-reconfiguration switching networks.

The reconfiguration Cartesian product networks can be described in terms of changing the various fanouts and widths of the network, as well as the number of stages. For example in the two dimensional RBCCG networks set forth above, the fanouts F₁ and F₂, the widths W₁ and W₂ as well as the height H, can be changed. The reconfiguration process is as set forth above, except the specific embodiments regarding port selection should be adapted for the context. For example, in selecting the port in the one-dimensional RBCCG network, the ports are scanned from left to right to find the best candidate port to manipulate first. With a two-dimensional (or higher dimensional) multistage switching network, this description does not fit. Any systematic scanning method can be used, including but not limited to, raster scanning, serpentine scanning, and zig-zag scanning, shown in FIG. 33A, FIG. 33B and FIG. 33C respectively.

For clarity, the ISIC networks are omitted from the diagrams to follow, but should be assumed to included as part of the switching networks described. FIG. 31A shows an expansion by a single vertical slice analogous to a column expansion in a one-dimensional RBCCG. This causes an increase in the number of switching elements in the x₁ direction. Though not shown, the same kind of expansion could also be implemented in the x₂ direction. FIG. 31B shows a more arbitrary width expansion where the W₁ width is expanded by one but the placements are completely arbitrary; similarly, this could be applied to expansion to the W₂ width. FIG. 31C shows an expansion in both the W₁ and W₂ widths using a method analogous to column upgrades. FIG. 31D shows an expansion in both the W₁ and W₂ widths, but in a more arbitrary fashion. In FIG. 31A, FIG. 31B, FIG. 31C and FIG. 31D, the ISIC networks are not shown to simplify the diagram and the new switching elements are highlighted by hatching.

FIG. 32A and FIG. 32B show a simultaneous upgrade in fanout, width, and height. FIG. 32A shows the pre-reconfiguration switching network architecture, and FIG. 32B shows the post-reconfiguration architecture. In particular, the width is increased by one in the x₁ direction, and the fanout is increased by a fixed amount (no value is specifically shown, but any increase is legitimate) in the x₂ direction. Additionally, an extra stage of switching elements is inserted between stages 2 and 3. In FIG. 32B, the increased fanout is denoted by hatching and added switching elements are highlighted by hatching.

Furthermore, when considered in its flattened form like that depicted in FIG. 34, a Cartesian product network can be treated as a one-dimensional multistage switching network, and it can be transformed with the reconfiguration process set forth above to any other viable one-dimensional multistage switching network.

The overlaid switching networks can be reconfigured using the process set forth above. The fault tolerance requirements are more relaxed in this architecture. Because of the alternate paths that exploit connections in both the IRIC and ICIC networks, fault tolerance of the switching network is magnified over that of the source multistage switching network. An overlaid switching network with its IRIC derived from the ISIC network of a Banyan such as the one shown in FIG. 35 can be upgraded in width, though there is insufficient fault tolerance in a Banyan network to upgrade a Banyan network as a multistage switching network, because the overlaid network draws additional fault tolerance from connections in the ICIC networks.

In order to simply the description, an exemplar depicting a simple upgrade in width is presented. To properly apply the process set forth above for multistage switching networks to overlaid switching networks, it should be noted that in upgrading the multistage switching networks, after the preliminary shuffling of hardware, focus is on the rewiring of the ISIC networks. In an overlaid switching network, after initial shuffling of hardware, the focus of the upgrade process is on rewiring the IRIC and ICIC networks.

FIG. 36A shows an overlaid switching network 7902 formed by overlaying an RBCCG network with 5 columns and 4 rows onto an RBCCG network with 4 columns and 5 rows, both with a fanout per switching element of 3. Since this is an upgrade, there are no external ports that need to be deactivated. Next, a column 7904 of switching elements is prepared for insertion, by making any connections between them that are to be made in the post-reconfiguration switching network. Thus far, the process matches that performed if one were to upgrade by width with respect to the IRIC networks.

Since both the IRIC and ICIC networks require reconfiguration, one could simply perform a width upgrade, considering the overlaid network as multistage switching networks, with the rows as the stages and the IRIC networks as ISIC networks. Then, perform a stage upgrade, considering the overlaid network as a multistage switching network, with the columns as the stages and the ICIC networks as the ISIC networks. In either order as proscribed, the process set forth for reconfiguring a multistage switching networks. In that regard, the stage upgrade is recommended to be performed first because typically a stage upgrade tends to increase redundancy in the switching network, while a width upgrade tends to decrease redundancy and increase throughput.

In the example of FIG. 36A, a different tactic is adopted. To increase the overall redundancy of the network, column 7904 is spliced into the network at the location indicated by arrow 7906 in accordance with the splicing step set forth above, resulting in FIG. 36B.

At this point, the general description of the rewiring step set forth above could be broadened. The step for a multistage switching network is to select a port that needs rewiring, break any existing connection, and connect the port to the corresponding port in accordance with the post-reconfiguration switching network, where the specific embodiments break the port selection into organized steps. This description now applies to left ports and right ports in addition to the top ports and bottom ports of a multistage switching network. The example given here first rewires the ICIC networks, selecting the center-most ICIC network 7910 first, and then proceeds outward to the other ICIC networks 7908 and 7912, then the IRIC network 7914. The reason for selecting the ICIC networks first is that some of the switching elements have top and bottom ports that are disconnected. By connecting them properly by rewiring the ICIC networks first, the network increases its redundancy. When such redundancy during the upgrade process is not critical, another order of rewiring can be used.

FIG. 36C shows the switching network after ICIC network 7910 is rewired. FIG. 36D shows the switching network after ICIC 7908 is rewired. FIG. 36E shows the switching network after ICIC 7912 is rewired. FIG. 36F shows the switching network after IRIC 7914 is rewired. Connecting and activating the external ports introduced by column 7904 and allowing traffic to flow through them completes the upgrade process.

A few additional examples of reconfiguration of overlaid switching networks is given. FIG. 37A shows the same RBCCG network as in FIG. 36A. FIG. 37B shows the addition of new top and bottom ports to each switching element in preparation for a fanout upgrade. FIG. 37C shows the forming of all connections, in accordance with the post-reconfiguration switching network, which can be made without breaking existing connections; specifically the rightmost top and bottom ports of the rightmost switching elements are connected to the adjacent row's switching element. Only the IRIC networks need to be rewired, so the step follows identically the rewiring step as set forth above. For simplicity's sake, the optional relabeling is not performed here. FIG. 37D shows the result of rewiring the IRIC network between row 1 and row 2. FIG. 37E shows the result of rewiring the IRIC network between row 0 and row 1. FIG. 37F shows the result of rewiring the row 2 and row 3. Upon connecting and activating the new external ports introduced by the upgrade so that traffic is allowed to flow through them, the upgrade process is completed. It should be noted that the switching element rows are numbered from the 0 to 3 with row 0 at the top.

Due to the two dimensional layout of the overlaid architecture, it can be desirable to “take the fanout” from one direction and “give it to another.” More precisely stated, if an RBCCG network of per switching element fanout F₁ is overlaid on an RBCCG network of per switching element fanout F₂, this network can be converted without addition of hardware to a network with the same dimensions except with per switching element fanouts of F₁+1 and F₂−1.

FIG. 38A shows an overlaid switching network formed from a 5 column 4 row RBCCG network with a fanout of 2, overlaid on a 5 column 4 row RBCCG network with a fanout of 3. The reconfiguration is to convert it to an overlaid switching network formed from a 5 column 4 row RBCCG network with a fanout of 3, overlaid onto a 5 column 4 row RBCCG network with a fanout of 2.

FIG. 38B shows the same switching network shown in FIG. 38A, but drawn a little differently. FIG. 38C shows a left port for each switching element reassigned as a top port, and a right port for each switching element reassigned as a bottom port. Before proceeding to the rewiring step, traffic to ports that were originally external but will cease to be should be shut off, traffic should be diverted from them, and the ports should be disconnected. The rewiring step set forth above can be applied with some modification. Generally, the upgrade procedure comprises the steps of selecting a port not correctly connected to its corresponding port, as defined by the post-reconfiguration architecture, and rewiring it to the corresponding port, breaking any existing connection when necessary. The choice of which port to select depends of various factors. Most commonly, the desire to minimize service disruption takes precedence, so one could select a port which doesn't require the breaking of an existing connection, or, failing that, select a port that is available due to breaking a connection on the previous iteration. The resultant rewired switching network is shown in FIG. 38D. Any former internal ports that have become external ports in this process can become active, wired to external sources, and have traffic flow through them. The scalable switching networks described above can be upgraded in a non-stop manner; however this upgrade must be done in a certain order to minimize the affect on the traffic carrying capacity of the network. Although the systems and methods set forth below are given in terms of an upgrade procedure, it should be understood that these systems and methods can be applied to the general reconfiguration processes described above.

Several methods are described which either facilitate or implement these upgrade procedures. All the techniques below employ common software elements to work effectively. First, the software needs to detect the current architecture, and generate the upgraded target architecture and from that, derive the set of steps required for the non-disruptive upgrade, for example, as derived from the post-reconfiguration architecture.

Second, the software needs to monitor the process of the upgrade procedure. Current software such as OpenView by HP and NetCool performs this functionality using the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) or other supervisory protocols.

Third, the software needs to poll and verify individual connections. One method is to instruct the specific switching element to check the status of a connection associated with a particular port. This check can be done at the physical level by testing to see if there is any light on an optical connection. This can also be done at the protocol level by checking to see if point-to-point protocol (PPP) is running. The switching element can then either report directly back to the software or include the information in a supervisory protocol message. Another method for the software to verify the individual connection is to trace traffic through specific routes in the scalable switching network with a program similar to the UNIX™ traceroute program.

Fourth, as an optional enhancement, the software could further comprise a module which instructs a switching element to divert traffic flow to the line card or port associated with the connection to be broken, and to terminate the traffic flow from the line card or port associated with the connection to be broken. Similarly, it can instruct a switching element to resume traffic flow to and from a line card or port associated with a connection to be established. Though not necessary, this would further limit disruption to the service during the upgrade process.

Using the software described above, one could monitor the progress of an upgrade, as well as receive instructions for what connection to move. For instance, a technician running the software could be instructed to disconnect port 1 on switching element 5, and reconnect that fiber to vacant port 2 on switching element 3. Then the software can check to see if that connection was properly made, and indicate that to the technician.

FIG. 39 shows a physical implementation of a scalable switching network. The switching elements 9300 are connected via some cables (most likely optical fiber) 9302 to a patch panel 9304. The patch panel is connected to a series of (optical fiber) jumpers 9306. These jumpers are connected back to the patch panel. For one switching element to connect to another switching element, it must connect through a cable to the patch panel, then through a jumper back to the patch panel, and finally through another cable to the second switching element. Clearly, in such a scheme, one need only change the jumpers to rewire the connections between the switching elements.

FIG. 40 shows a schematic of a patch panel. The patch panel comprises connectors to the switching elements (not shown) in the rear, connectors 9400 for the jumpers in front, and indicator lights 9402. These lights are connected to some kind of central driver which can be addressed by a computer. Each connector 9400 has a light associated with it. Such a patch panel is commercially available from vendors such as Siemens.

The software described above can further comprise a module, which can drive these lights which serves as a guide to instruct the technician which connection to move during the upgrade process. Some convention should be established in order to instruct the technician of the actions. This can be accomplished if the lights have colors, or by varying the lighting states of the light such as a steady light, a fast blinking light, and a slow blinking light. If colors are available, additional states can be created by alternating colors in a blinking mode. An indication convention should be established to indicate a “disconnect me,” “connect me” and “error in connection.”

The technician can be directed through the upgrade or reconfiguration through the process described in FIG. 42. The order of operation can be determined by a computer configured to operate the process in FIG. 42. For example, the connection to be manipulated in the step “determine next connection to be established” can be determined by a computer with the pre-reconfiguration architecture and post-reconfiguration architecture programmed. From those two switching networks and the current state of the present switching network, the computer can determine based on the reconfiguration process set forth above, the next connection to be established. Furthermore, this computer can be in communication with the switching network and can monitor whether the correct connection is made. In one embodiment, the computer can back a technician out of an erroneous connection being established or broken.

In a typical operation of an embodiment of this method, a technician invokes the software application described and then proceeds to the patch panel. An indicator light instructs him to make a connection or to disconnect a port. Once each step is successfully completed, he can receive acknowledgment that the step was successfully undertaken. After the entire upgrade is complete, there could be a convention indicating all is successful, such as all the lights on all ports blinking for 10 seconds.

In the previous embodiment of upgrade assistance, the technician performs a rather mechanical operation. Due to the length and perhaps tedium of such an procedure, it can be desirable to replace the technician in the procedure with a robot.

Without going into any extreme detail in robotics, a robotic arm could be attached to each patch panel and be controlled by the same central software which was guiding the technician in the previous embodiment. So rather than indicating to the technician which connection to make or break, a robotic arm is instructed which changes to make. There should also be a location on the patch panel to store “spare” jumpers. In that during some of the upgrade process, completely new connections are made or old connections are completely broken.

The robotic technology to implement this has been around for over twenty years, dating back to graphic plotters by Hewlett-Packard that would grab different colored ink pens and manipulate them to certain locations on a plotting package. Such a device has the essential ingredients to perform the upgrade. This type of robotic arm may encounter problems arising from interference with the other jumper cables. However, modern robotics has evolved much further and modern robotics used in mass production manufacturing has devices which can deal with this.

Though the robotic method of the preceding can eliminate much of the human error that can occur in the upgrade process, mechanical processes such as robotics are prone to breakdown, compared to a purely solid state processes. The embodiments described below employ addressable latching switches to perform upgrade processes.

In the first embodiment, the network comprises switching elements for which each port is augmented with a latching switch. For example, FIG. 41 depicts a router comprising latching switches coupled to each port. In alternative embodiments of this enhancement, the latching switch could be built into the router's line cards and addressable by the router, or the latching switch could be appended to the router ports and addressable through a connection directly to the latching switch. The router depicted can be any router or more generally any of the switching elements described. The latching switch can be directed into its switching states by a signal. In this particular embodiment, the latching switch is a single pole double throw switch and can be set to one of two states, referred to as the first state and the second state. Each state directs traffic to one of two ports. It is also desirable, for error checking purposes, for the latching switches to be pollable, that is, with a proper communications module in the software, the current state of a switch is obtainable.

During normal operations, only the first set of ports of the latching switches are connected to the other first set of ports of latching switches corresponding to other routers in such a fashion as to implemented the interconnection networks of the scalable switching architectures described. Though not required, these connections could be implement through the use of a patch panel as described above. During this normal operation, the second set of ports on all the latching switches are all idle and need not have any connections to them.

During the upgrade process, the first step is to wire the second set of ports on the latching switches to the other second set of ports on other routers in the manner of the interconnection network to be upgraded to. Connections can then be broken and established in accordance with the upgrade procedures under the control of the software described above.

FIG. 43A depicts a pre-upgrade picture where router 9600 is connected through a latching switch 9602, through a connection 9604, to another latching switch 9606 to router 9608. Supposed during the upgrade process router 9600 should be connected to router 9610, then the second ports on latching switch 9602 and 9612 should be connected. When it is necessary to make the make this connection change, latching switch 9602 is thrown to break connection 9604 and latching switch 9612 is thrown to establish the new connection. It should be noted that now the port connected to latching switch 9606 is now broken as a result, but is presumably repaired later in the upgrade process. FIG. 43B depicts an post-upgrade picture when router 9600 is connected to 9610.

After the upgrade process is complete, the interconnections now operate through the second set of ports for each latching switch. Upon the next upgrade, the new network can be wired to the first set of ports for each latching switch

Another embodiment uses a prepackaged interconnection box. FIG. 44 depicts the overall architecture of this switching network, where routers are all connected to the prepackaged interconnection box. If a router is to communicate with another it must pass into the interconnection box. In this particular design, the need for a patch panel is eliminated, although for practical purpose the connection from the routers through to the interconnection box can pass through a patch panel to simplify the physical layout of the devices.

FIG. 45 shows a diagram of the prepackaged interconnection box. It comprises external ports to switching elements, latching switches, internal connectors, and prepackaged interconnections on printed circuit boards. In addition, the latching switches are connected to a communications port so that maintenance and upgrade software can query and manipulate the latching switches. Each external port is connected to a latching switch. The internal connectors are divided into two sets; each set is designed to interface with one interconnection board. Each latching switch is connected to two internal connectors, one in each of the two sets described above.

In operation, the interconnection boards can be inserted into the interconnection box. Current practice is to have slots for the boards to be inserted. Locking safeguards can be implemented to ensure an interconnection board cannot be removed while the system is running During normal operation, traffic would travel from one switching element to the interconnection box; depending on the current state, it would then traverse one set of connectors to an interconnection board, and back from the interconnection board through the same set of connectors out to another switching element.

During the upgrade process, a second interconnection board representing the upgraded interconnection pattern, which can be an ISIC network for a given post-reconfiguration architecture, is inserted into the inactive slot in the interconnection box. At this point, switching elements are connected through latching switches to a current and upgraded interconnection pattern, so the software triggered switching of the latches switches can proceed in the same manner as the above embodiment. After the upgrade process is complete, the original interconnection board can be removed.

Using the interconnection box, to the technician performing the upgrade, the process should appear as follows: The software is invoked. A second interconnection board is inserted into the interconnection box. The technician can trigger the upgrade process or the board insertion could trigger the upgrade process, at which the software redirects traffic, according to the upgrade steps generated one connection at a time, to the second interconnection board. Upon completion, the technician is notified that the process is complete, and the first interconnection board can be removed.

FIG. 46 shows a sample embodiment of an interconnection board implemented in optical fiber. Often, optical fiber has restrictions on the turning radii allowed before significant loss of signal occurs. Each fiber is coupled to a pair of connectors by which the interconnection board can be coupled to the interconnection box.

Though the preceding embodiments are directed towards the use of high-speed routers with optical interconnections, latching switches are also available for high speed electronic connections and interconnection boards implemented as simple printed circuit boards are also readily available. Both the preceding embodiments can also be implemented as electronic devices as well as optical.

Latching switches are described above so that no power is required in the first embodiment or in the interconnection box except during the process of upgrading. This also ensures stability during a power outage of the interconnection box. Though latching switches are described for both embodiments, powered switches, that is, switches that require power to maintain a second switching state, can be employed instead. It is far more cumbersome, but in both embodiments the use of powered switches can be substituted by first assembling an identical interconnection pattern connected to the second port on the switches. After the identical interconnection pattern is connected, each connection is transitioned over to the second set of interconnections by a powered switch. Once all the traffic is diverted to the redundant interconnection network, the first set of interconnections is reconfigured to the new upgrade pattern. From this point, the upgrade process is applied in the same manner as described above with the finished architecture wired through the first set of interconnections, at which point, no power need be applied to the switches.

As previously discussed, the scalable switching network can be upgraded by controlling and monitoring single pole double throw switches associated with the internal switching element ports. The upgrade procedure can also be accomplished by electronically controlled optical crossbars as shown in FIG. 47. All the bottom ports associated with a particular stage of the scalable switching network can be connected to the inputs of an optical crossbar. All the top ports associated with the subsequent stage of the scalable switching network can be connected to the outputs of the optical crossbar. The electronically controlled optical crossbar can thus connect any bottom port associated with a particular stage of the scalable switching network with any top port associated with the subsequent stage of the scalable switching network. This electronically controlled optical crossbar can be controlled by the same algorithm used to control the patch panel in FIG. 40.

Returning to the various algorithms for upgrading a scalable switching network, additional redundancy can be enhanced by making additional connections in new hardware as described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/141,789, entitled “Method of adding stages to a scalable switching network,” filed on May 31, 2005, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety as if set forth in full. For example, during the pre-connection step, additional connections can be made that do not conform to the post-configuration topology. In particular, even when upgrading a multistage interconnection network, temporary connections in the new hardware can be provided in violation of the multistage interconnection network topology. Routing is maintained through dynamic routing tables or equivalent. For example, FIG. 48 shows a row insertion upgrade where the inserted new row 4801 has some top ports connected to some bottom ports of the new row violating the multistage interconnection network topology. However, while in the upgrade process these connections provide extra path redundancy.

While certain embodiments of the inventions have been described above, it will be understood that the embodiments described are by way of example only. Accordingly, the inventions should not be limited based on the described embodiments. Thus, the scope of the inventions described herein should only be limited in light of the claims that follow when taken in conjunction with the above description and accompanying drawings. 

1. A method of upgrading a scalable switching network, said scalable switching network comprising: a plurality of stages of switching elements each comprising a plurality of ports coupled to a rear connector coupled to a front connector on a patch panel; a plurality of internal ports; a plurality of external port; and a plurality of internal connections, wherein the internal ports and external ports are ports of one of the switching elements and the internal connections are jumpers coupled to two front connectors on the patch panel coupled to rear connectors coupled to the internal ports, said method comprising: providing a post-reconfiguration architecture; adding new hardware comprising a plurality of internal ports as defined by the post-reconfiguration architecture; assigning to each internal port a corresponding port defined by the post-reconfiguration architecture; and rewiring any internal port on the basis of the post-reconfiguration architecture, said patch panel comprises a plurality of connectors having coupled front and rear connectors and at least one indication means associated with each front connector; and said rewiring comprising: (a) selecting a selected port of the plurality of internal ports that is not coupled through connectors to the corresponding port assigned to said selected port; (b) activating a disconnect indication means associated with the front connector coupled to the rear connector coupled to the selected port, if the front connector is coupled to a first jumper; (c) waiting for the first jumper to be disconnected; (d) verifying the first jumper is correctly disconnected; (e) activating an error indication means associated with the front connector coupled to the rear connector coupled to the selected port, if the first jumper is not correctly disconnected; (f) activating a disconnect indication means associated with the front connector coupled to the rear connector coupled to the corresponding port assigned to the selected port, if the front connector is coupled to a second jumper; (g) waiting for the second jumper to be disconnected; (h) verifying the second jumper is correctly disconnected; (i) activating an error indication means associated with the front connector coupled to the rear connector coupled to the corresponding port assigned to the selected port, if the second jumper is not correctly disconnected; (j) activating a connect indication means associated with the front connector coupled to the rear connector coupled to the selected port; (k) activating a connect indication means associated with the front connector coupled to the rear connector coupled to the corresponding port assigned to the selected port; (l) waiting for a third jumper to be connected to the front connector coupled to the rear connector coupled to the selected port and the front connector coupled to the rear connector coupled to the corresponding port assigned to the selected port; (m) verifying a proper connection of the third jumper; (n) activating the error indication means associated with the rear connector coupled to the selected port, and the error indication means associated with the rear connector coupled to the corresponding port assigned to the selected port, if the third jumper is not properly connected; and repeating steps (a)-(n) until each internal ports is coupled through connectors to its corresponding port.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the connect indication means is a light, the disconnect indication means is a light, and the error indication means is a light.
 3. The method of claim 2, wherein the connect indication means, the disconnect indication and the error indication means are the same light.
 4. The method of claim 2, wherein the connection indication means, the disconnect means, and error indications are associated with different colors.
 5. The method of claim 2, wherein the connection indication means, the disconnect means, and error indications are associated with blinking patterns.
 6. The method of claim 1 further comprising: pre-connecting any internal port on the basis of the post-reconfiguration architecture.
 7. The method of claim 6, wherein the pre-connecting comprises: selecting a pre-connection port of the plurality of internal ports that is not coupled through connectors to any connection and having assigned a corresponding port that is not coupled to any connection; and connecting a jumper to the front connector coupled to the rear connector coupled to the pre-connection port and to the front connector coupled to the rear connector coupled to the corresponding port assigned to the pre-connection port.
 8. The method of claim 1 further comprising: relabeling any internal ports belonging to a common switching element on the basis of the post-configuration architecture.
 9. The method of claim 8, wherein the relabeling comprises: selecting a pair of internal ports having a first port and a second port wherein the second port is connected to a switching element containing the corresponding port assigned to the first port or; and logically exchanging the labels of the first port and the second port whereby traffic intended for the first port is routed to the second port and traffic intended for the second port is routed to the first port.
 10. The method of claim 8, wherein the relabeling comprises: selecting a pair of internal ports having a first port and a second port wherein the second port is connected to the corresponding port assigned to the first port; and logically exchanging the labels of the first port and the second port whereby traffic intended for the first port is routed to the second port and traffic intended for the second port is routed to the first port.
 11. The method of claim 1, wherein said new hardware comprises at least one new stage of switching elements, at least one new switching element, at least one new port to at least one of the switching elements, or a combination thereof.
 12. A scalable switching network comprising: a plurality of stages of the switching elements; a plurality of internal ports; a plurality of external ports; and a plurality of internal connections, wherein each switching element comprising a plurality of ports and a plurality of latching switches with each port coupled to a latching switch; each latching switch comprises: an addressable set of states comprising a first state and a second state; a first port associated with the first state; and a second port associated with the second state, and wherein traffic is directed towards the first port if the first state is set and the traffic is directed towards the second port if the second state is set; wherein adjacent stages are connected using a redundant blocking compensated cyclic group interconnection network; wherein the internal ports and external ports are the first port of one of the latching switches and the internal connections are coupled to two of the internal ports, and wherein the internal connections are configured in accordance to a first topology.
 13. The scalable switching network of claim 12, further comprising: a plurality of alternate internal ports; a plurality of alternate external ports and a plurality of alternate internal connections, wherein the alternate internal ports and alternate external ports are the second port of one of the latching switches and the alternate internal connections are coupled to two of the alternate internal ports, and wherein the alternate internal connections are configured in accordance to a second topology.
 14. A method of upgrading a scalable switching network, said scalable switching network comprising: a plurality of stages of upgradeable switching elements, each upgradeable switching element comprising: a switching element comprising a plurality of ports; and a latching switch coupled to each port comprising: an addressable set of states comprising a first state and a second state; a first port associated with the first state; and a second port associated with the second state, and wherein traffic is directed towards the first port if the first state is set and the traffic is directed towards the second port if the second state is set; a plurality of internal ports; a plurality for external port; and a plurality of internal connections, wherein the internal ports and external ports are ports of one of the switching elements and the internal connections are coupled to two first ports of latching switches, each latching switch coupled to one of the internal ports, and wherein the internal connections are configured in accordance to a pre-reconfiguration architecture, said method comprising: providing a post-reconfiguration architecture; adding new hardware comprising a plurality of internal ports as defined by the post-reconfiguration architecture; assigning to each internal port a corresponding port defined by the post-reconfiguration architecture; connecting each internal port to the corresponding port assigned to the internal port by connecting the second port of the latching switch coupled to the internal port to the second port of the latching switch coupled to the corresponding port; rewiring any internal port on the basis of the post-reconfiguration architecture; and disconnecting all connections to each first port of each latching switch, wherein rewiring comprises sequentially: (a) selecting a selected port of the plurality of internal ports where the latching switch coupled to the selected port is in the first state; (b) switching the latching switch associated with the selected port to the second state; and (c) switching the latching switch associated with the corresponding port assigned to the selected port to the second state; repeating steps (a)-(c) until every latching switch is in the second state.
 15. The method of claim 14, further comprising: pre-connecting any internal port on the basis of the post-reconfiguration architecture.
 16. The method of claim 15, wherein the pre-connecting comprises: selecting a pre-connection port of the plurality of internal ports where the first port of the latching switch coupled to the pre-connection port is not coupled to any connection and the first port of the latching switch coupled to the corresponding port assigned to the pre-connection port is also not coupled to any connection; switching the latching switch associated with the pre-connection port to the second state; and switching the latching switch associated with the corresponding port assigned to the pre-connection port to the second state.
 17. The method of claim 14, wherein said new hardware comprises at least one new stage of switching elements, at least one new switching element, at least one new port to at least one of the switching elements, or a combination thereof.
 18. The method of claim 14, wherein the selecting a selected port comprises selecting a port with a latching switch in the first state wherein the corresponding port has a latching switch in the first state wherein the first port of the latching switch is not connected to a port with a latching switch in the first state.
 19. The method of claim 1, wherein the selecting a selected port comprises selecting a port with a corresponding port which is not connected. 